As I child, I dreamed of standing on the podium. As a teenager/college student, I tried to make it happen (and wasn't all that far off). It's cool to see people I knew and competed against out there on the track running and jumping and throwing. So, I just LOVE every 4 years when the Summer Olympics come back. I am glued to the TV/Internet watching results and cheering on my team...
I stayed up late last night to watch the *PHENOMENAL* 4x100 freestyle Men's competition. It really was the race of the Olympics. They broke the world record by almost 4 seconds! (Actually, I think 4 different teams actually broke the record...) The US won by 0.08 seconds! And, they were behind with only 20m to go... I was jumping up and down going "GO! GO! GO!" (quietly as I could since I was the only one still awake)... It was SOOO AMAZING! (Especially after they beat the French, who had predicted that they would "smash" the US team... AHAHAHA)
Also amazing were Men's and Women's gymnastics. Now you might be saying, well, they aren't #1 going into the team competition. The truly amazing part is that they are both still in it with 2 members of the original team either at home or injured. This is what "team" is all about. The Men had to complete without the Hamm brothers - very integral to the success of the US team in 2004. Both pulled out before the games and the two alternates packed their backs and booked to Beijing- what true heart they have to come out with very little warning and work as hard as they have been. And the women - 2 injured on their team, 1 of which was during the warmups! The four members who could compete did so in each event (with all of their scores counting, instead of being able to pick and choose the best of the team to actually compete and drop the lowest score like every other team). Sure, they had bobbles and falls (and I want to take the judge from the balance beam out back and kick his *** - he clearly was not paying attention - he scored 2 of the 4 at almost a full point lower than than the other judges on the event! I mean, what was he thinking...) but they pulled it together and with the tremendous power, still showed up and did really well. I think that's what the Olympics are all about!
So ...
*HERE'S MY PRIZE CHALLENGE FOR YOU*
Do a page about your feeling about the Olympics, sports, the US... or anything that is related to teamwork. Post a link to your layout here in the comments. I'll have Annde draw the winner during the Closing Ceremonies (Aug 24) so your link has to be here before that date.
I'll post the fun prize you can win with my layout tomorrow or Wednesday... (I would have done it today but I just came up with the idea...)
Feel free to enter it into other challenges/contests such as the ones at Coordinate Collections or Scrapdango GDT challenge ("Using Numbers on your page") or head over to Pink Sketches and use their sketch for the week (will be posted on August 17th). There are links to the right if you want to find these contests/challenges... Enjoy!!
And GO USA!!
(BTW - John Williams wrote the Olympic theme that you hear when the coverage starts on TV... and the pictures posted are from the Yahoo Olympic coverage...)
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